TEMP SECRETARY IN THE 1970'S

 
Once I finish my 1968 novel, I look forward to writing a memoir about my days as a temp secretary - a Minnesota girl working in offices in downtown Los Angeles, on Hollywood Boulevard, in Beverly Hills and in the pic below-the Petersen Building (no longer there) in the advertising office of Skin Diver magazine on Sunset Strip. I'd never been west of Montana till I landed in California.

Where did I get a poster of Koala Bears? Shouldn't I have a pic of skin divers on my bulletin board?

"With a Little Help..."

FINALLY - I've finished the 4th draft of my novel. The working title: "With a Little Help..." Kate, my leading lady, is a Beatles fan. Of course she is. She's a teenager in the 1960s.

Poor Kate. After Thanksgiving, in her junior year, her mom and stepdad have decided to move. Junior year? And she has to change schools? 

The story begins in December 1967 and ends on the first day of Kate's senior year, September 1968.

It's my mission now to find a few folks who are interested to read all or part of the book. If I receive comments after their read, I'll know what to work on in draft #5.

One afternoon, a few weeks ago, I realized my novel is not just fiction. Its genre is "historical fiction."

 

Snapshot of my Older Sisters and I

 

Above is a photo of me with my three sisters Right of the photo, on my left, is Lilas, sixteen years older than me.  To my right is Mary Louise, thirteen years older. My sister Karen, with the mid-fifties popular sailor's blouse, ten years older.

With older sisters I learned to talk and walk early. And if I finished my popsicle first, one of my sisters would share what they had left. And I learned new words. My mom and dad always called them my sisters. I first heard the word "half-sister" on a road trip to Fort Arthur, Canada (now Thunder Bay). I was about 10. Lilas introduced me to her cousin as "my half-sister Narta." The cousin was on her father's side of family. I also remember he worked on a tugboat and brought us to the port to see it and climb aboard.

The photo was taken in my first home, on a farm in Harris, Minnesota.  I was about four. My parents, Karen and I would soon move to Silver Bay. Mom must have recently given me a Tonette perm. My hair was naturally straight. 

Musical, "Boys From Syracuse." Moorhead's Straw Hat Players company in the early or mid  1970s. I remember the show because it was the only time I performed a solo dance on stage. That's me as a "youngster" in the middle of the stage. Fellow dancers: Bethea, Juleen and Kristin. Staring at us: Les Sarnoff.

NEW FEATHERY NEIGHBORS

 

Across the way from our house, we have fairly new neighbors who have made many changes in their backyard. In the hills here, few of us have flat back yards. But this property does. And recently, coops were added to the yard. 

Personally, as someone who spent my first almost-five years on a farm, I like the sound of chickens. But then a rooster was added to our neighborhood...

 

At first it began to crow about 7 or 7:30. At the time, we were having fairly heavy marine layers in the morning and the sun didn't shine early. Then one morning, there was no cloud cover. It's summer. The rooster began his cock-a-doodle-dooing at 5:30. Hmmmm...

It wasn't long before some neighbor, closer to the coops than us, complained. A few days later, no crowing until 8 or 9ish.

And there was a gift bag on our back doorstep. Inside was a note saying that the rooster problem was hopefully solved. (They lay drapes over the rooster's home to fool him when the sun rises.) Also in the gift bag - a container with 6 fresh eggs! Nice...  And delicious!

LEARNING TO WRITE

Losing confidence, stuck on how to proceed with my novel, I returned to one of the first writing books I ever bought. After reading a few chapters of "IF YOU WANT TO WRITE, I was back on the writing wagon again.

 

FOR THOSE WHO NEED A NUDGE - 

For anyone who yearns to write, but doesn't know how to begin, I recommend this book.Originally published in 1935, it still speaks to people out there who want to write, are writing now, or have written in the past and want to get back to telling a story. You have to start somewhere. Ms. Ueland's oldie but a goodie book may help.

You may not be able to read the subtitle -"A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit."

A few months ago, struggling with my novel, I felt down, blue, hopeless, and all that jazz about my writing and my story. When I'm stuck on how to move on to the next scene, and negativity begins to overtake me, I usually open my Kindle and find a writing book that's helped me in the past. This time I looked on my shelf of writing books and Ueland's book caught my eye. I hadn't looked at it for at least a decade. Her words were magic medicine doses that urged me to carry on.

If you are afraid to begin writing, haven't written lately, or think it's time to put your life's story together for a friend, your children, your grandchildren, or to publish for the masses, Brenda Ueland's book is still available. It may get you going.

 

"HOW TO WRITE" BOOKS

There are tons of writing tomes out there. If I'm not working on my 1968 novel (working title, "With a Little Help..."), I may blog about a good one I recently discovered; it's about how to understand points of view in fiction. 

If you would like recommendations about writing books (or just wish to say hello) send me a message through the blog. 

 

Learning never ends. And that's good. 

 

Happy Reading and Writing! 

TRUTH OR FICTION?

  

I recently discovered two photos. Both are dated 1960. I was in third grade that school year, the year my parents and I moved from Silver Bay back to our farmhouse in Harris, Minnesota.  (About two months later we moved back to Silver Bay.) The pic above was taken at the farm. Soon after our move.  

Once Upon a Time... 

Years ago I was writing a memoir about the neighborhoods in my life, especially childhood years in Minnesota – including our family farm in Harris and our years in Silver Bay. Some of past blog entries were helpful as I put together material for the book.

A writer friend read a chapter or two of my stories, and told me I was wasting my time writing a bio -  since I wasn’t famous, who would read it? Her comment turned out all for the best. My favorite books when I was a kid were Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden mysteries.  I dreamed of writing a novel about girl detectives, and put my energy into writing my e-book The Missing Photo Mystery.

 

But now, after posting some childhood photos on Facebook, I’m tempted to return to my memoir. Have hundreds of printed pages still waiting in a file cabinet. But I’m unsure about the project. Not because I’m a non-famous person, but because I’m not sure about the truthfulness of my memory.  

 

The girl in the photo above doesn’t look like a miserable sad-sack to me.  But for years I knew I hated moving back to Harris. I knew my time there was dreadful - riding the bus to school in North Branch, being the new girl in class, living in a farmhouse without central heating. That’s the story I told myself. Here's the second photo I found.

 

I see the same happy girl. Both pics were shot at our farmhouse. I recognize the walls. The place and dates on photos are contemporaneous evidence of that time. 

 

Memory’s a Tricky Thing...

Can we always trust it? Or do we revise memories as time passes? I believe now it was a difficult year for my parents, not me. I’ve woven my parents’ anxiety at the time, and their fears and worries together with my own emotional memories. 

 

If I do return to writing a story about my life’s neighborhoods, I may have to shelf it with other fiction. And here's a possible opening line… “This is not a memoir.” 

 

Silver Bay Christmas - 1960

House on Banks Blvd.  Fourth Grade.

My white blouse is initialed with "N" for my child nickname, Narta.  Later, in the spring, I get a "Ben Casey" blouse - named for one of the two popular TV doctors.  The other famous TV doctor is my favorite, Dr. Kildare. 

Not sure, but I may be gazing at a new Silvertone transistor radio, still in its plastic wrapper. 

On the floor is my new chemistry set, chosen from the Wish Book, also known as the Sears Christmas catalog.  It includes a microscope!  Through its lens I look at strands of my hair and leaves from Mom's African violet.

I've never been that interested in science, but my teacher Mrs. Munson read us a book about Madame Curie and her work with radium.  And thanks to the Campton Library I've read Landmark biographies about Alexander Graham Bell, Luther Burbank and George Washington Carver.  Science is interesting again.

It's the Cold War.  President Kennedy, just elected, wants our country to have more scientists in the future.  Maybe I can be one of them...  

Third Grade - Campton School

Mrs. Lyson's Class

1959-1960

In September of 1959, I turned eight.  If I'd been born 12 days later, I would have been in second, not third grade.  And graduated with the Silver Bay class of 1970 instead of  '69.


When were school photos taken?  Beginning or end of the year?  I wonder if this was shot in the spring. I'm biting my lip, kinda got a smirk on my face (2nd row, 2nd girl from left).  Makes me think I'm "glad to be back."  By that,  I mean back in Silver Bay, especially back to Mrs. Lyson's class at Campton School.

It was a strange year.  A year full of family tension.  A year that included a move back to the family farm, of months when I rode the bus to school and being the new girl in class.  I could, and maybe I will, build a novel about the events in my childhood during this time.  I have a notion if we had stayed on the farm.. if I had remained a student in North Branch, I would have become a different person with a far different life...  maybe run away from home in high school and joined the hippies in San Francisco.

 

SILVER BAY, 1958-1959, Second Grade

I am in second grade.  My teacher is Mrs. Sarf.  She's big and tall. Sometimes she scares me.

I'm learning to spell.  Some days we stand around the room in single file.  Mrs. Sarf says a word and when it's our turn we have to spell it out loud.  Sometimes two words sound the same but mean different things and are not spelled the same.  Did you know a slice of pie is spelled "piece" of pie?  But at Christmas  when you hear "peace on earth, good will to men" it's not spelled like piece of pie?

At the beginning of the year Daddy and I walk to the public library.  It's really close to our house.  It's in a green building.  The police office is in the same building.  The library is on the end near Banks Blvd.  Daddy gets a library card.  I look at all the books in the children's section. There are a lot of books to read.

One day I find a book on the library shelf that is the same book we have in our desk at school!   It's for when we do science.  But we don't take the book out of our desk much.  I have Daddy check it out for me. I read the whole thing.  It's easy because it's mostly pictures of birds and stuff. 

I can't wait until the day when we have "show and tell."  I have something to talk about.  The girl in my class who knew how to spell piece and peace reads a lot and is smart.  She might want to know about the public library in the green building.  For "show" I bring the science book from the library.

My teacher doesn't like my "show and tell." I want to sink through the floor when she is mad at me in front of my friends.  She calls my house.  I should not take out any of my school books from the public library. I will be bored at school if I read those books at home. That's what she tells my mom.   I thought my mom would be scared of my teacher, too.  But she's not.  Mom tells my teacher it's my teacher's job to make sure I'm not bored at school.  And it's good thing I like books.

Although we rarely used our science book, one spring day we take a "science field trip."  We walk to our teacher's house.  Her husband trapped a beaver.  The beaver's skin is stretched out on a board.  The little feet are in a small cardboard box on the lawn.

Science wasn't just pictures of pretty birds and animals. I learned more about that later in high school -  when we dissected fetal pigs in biology class. Oh, the smell of formaldehyde...

Silver Bay.... 1957-1958 - First Grade

FIRST GRADE DANCE RECITAL

 

I am in first grade.  My teacher is Mrs. Schmidt.  She is tall.  This year I am going to learn to read!  Our book is about a boy named Dick and a girl named Jane.

I am very excited after the first day of school.  When I get to my house I see my dad.  He's on the top of the step by the front door.  I run fast. I want to tell him about everything that happened.

The lawn is green and slippery.  I fall down.  When I stand up I see something on my hand.  I scream. Daddy sees it. He flicks it off with a finger. He says it's just a slug.  I don't like slugs.

Our house is on Charles Circle.  I can walk to school. In kindergarten we lived in the trailer court near Lake Superior. I had to ride to school. Sometimes now I walk home for lunch.  I like to eat chicken noodle soup for lunch.

My sister goes to the new high school.  She walks to school, too.  She goes by the shopping center on her way to school.  Sometimes she buys magazines at the Rexall Drug store.  One magazine she buys has pictures of Elvis Presley.  I like to see the pictures. Elvis is going into the army.  The army cuts his hair off.  Maybe I can learn to read about it soon. My sister also has Time magazine. It's for a class in school. There are pictures. But I want to learn how to read this, too.

Silver Bay, 1956-1957

DAYS OF WONDER 

My name is Narta.  I live in a cabin in the trailer court.  The trailer court is near the big lake.  The lake's name is Superior. Daddy sometimes calls it the shining big sea water. The road by the big lake has curves and hills.  I get carsick sometimes when we go on that road.

I moved to the cabin from a farm in Harris, Minnesota.  I like the cabin because it's next to a playground.  There are lots of kids in the trailer court.  Boys and girls. Before I moved here I only knew two boys.  Dean lives on a farm near ours.  Jeff lives in Minneapolis.  His mom is my mom's sister. 

I live in the cabin with my mom and my dad and my sister Karen and Boots.  He is a dog.  Karen is in 11th grade.  Her classes are in houses on Bell Circle.  I can see the school houses from the playground at Campton school.  

I am in kindergarten at Campton School.  I am in the afternoon class.  My teacher is Mrs. Firminhac.  The best toys at school are trucks and cars with wheels.  They are made of wood.  They are new and shiny and smooth.  I want to play with them but the boys take them first.  Some of the boys live in the trailer court.

My first day of school.  I am 4.

Winter in Hollywood

Three pics from the neighborhood.  We have autumn colors in winter as the days grow short.

The last week was cold for us with highs in the 50s.  It rained on the morning of Dec. 7.  Then the sky cleared.  The Hollywood sign is in the distance.  Pic below shot about noon from the upper parking level of the local Home Depot where we bought our house a Christmas gift - a new kitchen faucet!

HUMOR ABUSE AT THE MARK TAPER FORUM

LORENZO PISONI’s HUMOR ABUSE AT THE MARK TAPER FORUM

 In past years the word clown is often used as an insult – to describe a few people who make life miserable for the many.

 
However, I say it’s time to support and cheer the true clown!  True clowns make us laugh until we cry… in a healing way.  I witnessed such a clown at the Mark Taper Forum last week in the one-clown show HUMOR ABUSE.

Lorenzo Pisoni made the audience laugh, taught us about clownery, and shared stories about his father, their relationship and the days when, as a child, he was his father’s clown partner... As with many father/son stories, these times together are not always fun.  So, yes, the evening was sad, too. 

 
BUT, much of the evening was belly laugh time when you feel the surge of naturally-occurring chemicals in your own mind and body lift your spirit.  
 
I was upset when the Taper delayed WHAT THE BUTLER SAW to next season. I’d looked forward to seeing it because I’d played Geraldine in summer stock.  It’s a great farce with lots of laughs.  BUT the replacement show seemed like a dream come true for me… it was the medicine I needed to keep me working on my stories about clown dog Pebbles.  Last December I published A CLOWN DOG’S CHRISTMAS, the first of what I hope to be three books about Clown Dog Pebbles, Master Clown Beppo and their friends. There's nothing like a good play to ignite my creative self.

What the world needs now are clowns are more clowns.  I’m talking about those special ones who, with good hearts and comic talent, create pure joy.

 

Cheers and thanks to the wonderful LORENZO PISONI.

HUMOR ABUSE plays until Nov. 3 at the Taper in Los Angeles.

If it comes to your area, see it. 

A DOG NAMED HONEY WEST

Beautiful weather here.  Early afternoon, dappled sun on our deck, I brought a book outside to read.  Since Honey West doesn't know how to read, she decided to nap.  When I caught her snoozing I couldn't resist taking out my phone...

Click.  She woke up... "Hey... I'm trying to sleep here."

At a Dodger Game Last Night (8/13/13)

Lots to do  in my neighborhood of Los Angeles - but I rarely take advantage of this great and big city unless we have visitors from out of town.

But in the past week, even without visitors, I listened to Steve Martin play his banjo at a Hollywood Bowl concert, saw a funny and intriguing new play, Parallelogram, at the Mark Taper Forum downtown and... went to Dodger stadium. 

The young NY Mets pitching star Matt Harvey lost one of his few to Dodgers, 4-2.  Nephew Erik got us fantastic seats!

Below is the winning pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu in action.

Oh, and it was Dodgers Knit Cap Giveway Night!  Wow!

Straw Hat Players - Moorhead, Minnesota - 1975?

My seven years of summer theatre in Moorhead, Mn continue to influence me...  as one of my life's many neighborhoods.

As I wrote in previous blogs, the years tend to mesh as I possess few artifacts of that time... a couple of programs, a few pics from the Fargo Forum, some slides that are now digitized.

Among the pictures on the wall in front of my desk are four taken during summer theatre productions in Moorhead...one of these is of a silly, comedic version of Dracula - I'm not sure it was supposed to be that funny, but Les Sarnoff played Dr. Van Helsing.  Enough said .

(Not positive Dr. Van Helsing is the character name - Wish I could  find my old script. Probably donated years ago to the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library for one of their Saturday book sales.)

Anyway,  Sarnoff's character was a vampire expert.   And one of my favorite funny lines went something like this: "Here. Let me rub the juice of the batswort around these windows to ward them off."

It was hard to keep a straight face, but alas, as Mina, already bitten by Dracula, I was in a catatonic state, and not allowed to move a facial muscle.

In the pic above, Les is about to drive the stake into Dracula's heart. I believe the first name of the actor playing Dracula was Bruce. The character Jonathan (played by Kim Moerer, I think) is holding me back so I don't try to save the vampire. The actor in the middle of the pic is Jerry ver Dorn. 

Straw Hat Players Moorhead Mn - early 1970s? - The Miracle Worker

I'll post a couple more photos in honor of the 50th anniversary of Moorhead's summer theatre company, the Straw Hat Players - performing on the Minnesota State University campus in Moorhead.

My 7 years with the company somewhat blend together in my mind - without company lists and programs to help.   I'm not sure about the date of the photo below.

 
Above is a long shot from one of my favorite serious roles, Annie in  THE MIRACLE WORKER.
I'm lower left on pic with the young Helen Keller played by a girl named Heidi.  She was beyond wonderful.

In one scene Helen signed letters into a dog's paw.  And one night the dog in our cast walked offstage in the beginning of this scene. (Perhaps acting was not in his bloodlines.)

Mr. Keller and I continued the dialogue, knowing that soon we would reach the point when the father tells Annie that teaching Helen is a hopeless task - she doesn't know the signs are language - it's just a game... after all, she's signing to a dog. 

With no dog I wasn't sure what we were going to do... But... about two lines from the moment we needed the dog, our Helen picked up her doll from its buggy.  And she signed into the doll's hand.  Mr. Keller substituted "doll" for "dog" and we continued on as written except for that one word.

During act break Dr. Hansen asked Heidi,  "How did you think of using the doll?"   Looking surprised, as if it was no big deal, she said, "Well, the dog wasn't there."

Straw Hat Players Revisted - 1972 (?)

Photo is from production of a Neil Simon play:
LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS.

Great fun.  My character was Bobbie. The lead actor was Les Sarnoff... an amazingly funny man.

Probably from the summer season of 1972... I recognize the pantsuit... think I bought it earlier that year in Fargo or Moorhead... for an après wedding outfit, something new and something blue...   

Straw Hat Players 1975 (or 1976?)

I think the pic below comes from my 6th season with  Moorhead's Straw Hat Players, summer of 1975 -  THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE, a musical based on Shakespeare's THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.

I remember this production well. And not because it was the first - and only - time I was a featured dancer in a musical [I hadn't taken any formal dance lessons since 1st grade.  But Fatima was a comic character - I could get away with not being the best-trained dancer in the company].  I got to play the finger cymbals... wow.  Our choreographer was Roger Rabey.

My memory of this production remains strong because of
the second night of performance.   Good timing and an improvised tilt of the head in my solo dance prompted an unexpected wave of laughter in the audience... for a few moments time stopped... I felt that all the people in the auditorium and I were one - melded into a single entity with the universe - a transcendental experience, I guess.  Strange, rare, crazy, wonderful, brief.  Difficult to describe, impossible to forget.

In the photo is the wonderful comedy actor Leslie Sarnoff... as a lusty wizard, I believe.  I'm next to him, mid-stage.  Other members of the harem, from left to right: Bethea Stewart, Julie Ruhland and Kristin Rudrud.